Children’s role play village expected you to spend last 15 mins of session tidying up

[L3tti316]

Now I’ve only ever been to one other role play village and this didn’t happen so unsure if it’s the norm or not? But we paid for an hour and a half session and after an hour and 15 minutes they, and this is no exaggeration, blasted a tidy up song and parents and children I’m assuming felt obliged to stop playing and to tidy up. The man who owned it (I think) started tidying up and putting things back too.

I don’t know if it’s just me but I really feel like those extra 15 minutes should be spent playing and not tidying, especially as we’ve already paid for an allocated ‘play’ session. I understand teaching kids to tidy up but we do this at home, we go to these places to have fun. My youngest didn’t understand why the trike he was going up and down on kept getting removed and my eldest has autism and was getting upset at children/parents removing everything he was trying to play with.

He’s very good at being told ‘let’s get our shoes on and go to the car’ he will immediately stop and do so but he does not understand why things are being removed and why everybody is suddenly running around like headless chickens.

I kind of walked out thinking well that was all a bit weird. There’s no right or wrong answer really but I’m just wondering if anybody else has encountered this before as I hadn’t?

Are the customers being presented with this discount offer?
Because if not then it's not an option provided and as such I'm there to play and leave. If I wanted to tidy up I'd stay at home.

It will be part of their business model. The owner/worker doing all the tidying themselves would take considerably longer and change the business model. If you don’t like their particular business model you can always take your business elsewhere. It’s the same as any business… you pay for the service offered. This particular service is that you play, then you tidy up.

It’s not a ‘discount’, it’s just part of their pricing structure.

My local role play place doesn’t do this, and to be honest when I’ve paid £8 per child and £5 for myself I’d be pretty unimpressed if they did! The staff there tend to go around during the session putting discarded stuff back where it belongs and do a proper tidy between sessions. It’s literally what they’re paid to do.

I think it would be a good idea for them to maybe mention it on their Facebook page, website or have some sort of sign up whilst there that this is what happens 15 minutes before your session ends! I think if I’d have seen that I wouldn’t have gone and had I read it on a sign whilst there I would maybe have left before the tidy up time happened as to not upset my son! Although I still do find it cheeky that it eats in to your session that you’ve paid for for your children to play.

I went to a local cafe near me today that has a small role play area and small soft play. They have half an hour between sessions so they can reset the toys, disinfect and tidy everywhere before the next lot of children come. I personally think this is a much better idea than having a song blasted at you and having the last 15 mins of your paid for session ruined by children and adults running around everywhere desperately trying to tidy up before the next session starts. Makes WAAAAAY more sense to me! 🤷🏻‍♀️

I'm with all those saying there is a vast difference between a regular playgroup, or a volunteer led club - be that sports, or Brownies or Cubs or anything else, and a business.
Part of it is even in the marketing.
"£6.50 per child and £2 per adult for 75mins play. To keep our costs down we really appreciate it if families who have enjoyed the session can help us tidy up at the end" - You'd probably still go, but then wouldn't feel cheated out of paying for (the advertised) 90mins and only getting 75 and being made to feel you had to tidy up.

I don’t think I could have put it any better myself, this is spot on. Nobody has a problem with tidying up, they have a problem with feeling cheated out on the time they’ve paid for to play and not being allowed it because you’re made to feel like you have to spend 15 minutes tidying up at the end.

Agree that they should mention it. But it’s similar to say, McDonald’s, for example. They are able to charge less because there is an assumption that you clean away your own mess. If there was full table service, they would charge more. They don’t announce that fact, it’s just part of how they operate. So the play centre absolutely could clean up themselves, but chances are they’d then have to charge more or reduce the time of the session for their business model to work.

We have this - they end the ridy up bell 10 minutes before (then they shut for 30 minutes in between sessions).

We ignore and carry on playing because if I've paid for 90 minutes of play, I expect to be able to use all.

I do lots of role play at home. The reason I go to a role play cafe us precisely because I don't have to sort out the carnage.

The same way I go to a restaurant and don't expect to cook the food or wash up.

Community playgroups, volunteer led activities etc I absolutely tidy up with the kids. But not when its run as a profit making business, especially when its already quite expensive.

McDonalds do table service.